Financial turmoil could be bad for Entergy Corp. spinoff deal

10/14/08 6:06AM

A plan by Vermont
Yankee nuclear plant's owner to spin off five nuclear reactors under a new
company could be in jeopardy because of Wall Street's financial crisis.

Entergy Corp.
wants to fold the plants into Enexus Energy Corp., a new company. To do the
deal, Enexus - a publicly traded Delaware holding company - must raise $4.5 billion to buy the
nuclear plants in New
York, Vermont, Michigan
and Massachusetts from Entergy. Entergy, in turn, would retain half
ownership in Enexus.

The Vermont Public
Service Board has held technical hearings on the spinoff deal, and is expected
to render a decision by month's end.

Entergy spokesman
Alex Schott said the company plans to forge ahead with the deal this quarter,
but some wonder whether the condition of credit markets will stand in the way.

Department of
Public Service spokesman Stephen Wark says there's no doubt the market
upheavals are on regulators' minds, especially since the Enexus proposal
carries a large amount of debt.